Poll: More want less immigration

Americans want fewer people immigrating to the country, a new survey shows.

According to a Gallup poll released Friday, 22 percent of those polled favor increased immigration, while 33 percent would like to see it remain at the present level and a plurality, 41 percent and nearly double the amount of those who favor increased immigration, believe it should be decreased. Four percent had no opinion.

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The aversion towards increased immigration crosses partisan lines, with a majority of both Republicans and Independents answering that they would prefer decreased levels of immigration. Only a small fraction, 14 percent, of Republicans said that they would prefer an increase in immigration. The majority of Democrats polled said that they would prefer immigration to stay at its present level.

While numbers supporting increased immigration are low, the support for that approach has been on a steady rise since 1999, when only 10 percent of Americans said they prefer an increase.

But despite the desire to decrease immigration, the majority of those polled said that they view immigration as being a good thing for the country. Sixty-three percent of Americans polled by Gallup said that immigration was a positive force, while 33 percent shared negative feelings towards immigration. A positive view on immigration was felt mainly by Democrats. Seventy-two percent of Democrats said they felt that immigration was a good thing for the United States as well as 63 percent of Independents and 55 percent of Republicans.

The Gallup poll was conducted from June 5 to 8 between 1,027 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.